The Nizami Museum of Azerbaijani Literature occupies a sand-coloured palace on the north side of Fountain Square, named after the twelfth-century Persian-language poet Nizami Ganjavi, who is the country's most celebrated literary figure. The building is itself worth a look — the upper façade is decorated with sculptures of six major Azerbaijani writers — and the collection inside covers the history of the country's literature from medieval manuscripts to the Soviet era.
Labelling is mostly in Azerbaijani and Russian, which makes it less rewarding for non-readers, but the manuscripts and miniature paintings are striking even without the captions. Allow an hour.